POINTers IN PERSON Minutes
Chapter # 10 Central Texas/Austin
Laurie GUGINO Riester (#3878)
President Lin ONOFRIO Brinkman (#1388) opened the club's monthly meeting at Round Rock Library at 6:30pm. 17 people were in attendance.
Lin distributed the PIP Chapter 10 meeting schedule for 2004.
Lin introduced guest Sherry PACELLI Haddox. Sherry lives in Austin and her PACELLI and BIONDI family is from the Benevento area.
Lin mentioned the genealogy lock-in scheduled for September 19th, 6-9 PM, at the Round Rock library. There will be volunteers at the event to represent different countries. The event is being run by Elizabeth Johnson.
Lin passed around a copy of the Austin Cultural Association cookbook, and mentioned that they make great Christmas gifts. There are photos of Lin's and Dorothy MANCO ONOFRIO Lippincott's ancestors in the cookbook.
Laurie GUGINO Riester (#3878) has been working with Valledolmo birth records for the early 1800's. From these, she has learned the names of four of her 4-g grandparents and and two of her 3-g grandparents. New surnames include PARLATO and RAIMONDO.
Laurie recently spent a week in New York with her daughter and daughter's best friend. Highlights of the trip included the Broadway show Hairspray and a wonderful and very authentic Italian dinner in the outdoor garden at DaNico on Mulberry Street in Little Italy. A big two thumbs up for both.
Several in the group mentioned the Heritage Quest web site: www.tsl.state.tx.us/texshare/pl/remote.html
Jamie CANNONE's great uncle Frank OTTINO passed away on Thursday.
Jamie has been using the Ancestry.com interface to the US Census records at Round Rock Library and also Heritage Quest to search for OTTINO's and VESCO's. He's learned that his grandmother's grandmother was living with his grandmother's family in the 1920's. He's also looking through the 1930 census records for great great uncles. Jamie mentioned the question of whether siblings of grandparents should be referred to as great uncle/aunt or grand uncle/aunt. There are differing opinions on this question, and so it's helpful to be aware of both ways of referring to siblings of grandparents.
Bill Brinkman has been working with Navy ship muster rolls. They list enlisted men and, after March 1957, officers. During World War II, enlisted men's place of enlistment was also included. The records are available through the National Archives. http://www.archives.gov/index.html Bill and Lin will be attending the submarine reunion in October in Mobile.
Don VILLONI (#3985) has found a double-cousin, Gabriel DeRUBO, via an e-mail passed along to him by Lin. They are double-cousins through their VILLONI and DeRUBO lines. They have been comparing family information, and have found that they both have the same information. The town in Italy where the family lived is Bellona. Don passed around an article from Etruria Oggi magazine, "Marco Polo and the Land Route to Asia", by Andrea Bartucchi. There is a reference in the article to a Pietro VILLONI with a date of 1264. Don recently did a Google search and found a 95 page paper on Italians in Cleveland. http://www.clevelandmemory.org/italians/partiii.html
Jim Gerick mentioned the National Czech Genealogy conference, October 15-18.
Virginia MACRI Gerick (#2730) has joined the Connecticut Italian-American Historical Association. Virginia showed the group a picture of her mother and aunt. She is researching further into the DiCERBO's to see if she can find a connection. Sherry PACELLI Haddox's grandmother (BIONDI) was from Greci. Sherry has found some sources via e-mail who have supplied her with information on her grandmother's family back to the 1700's. Sherry has made a connection with a 6th cousin who lives in Rome. They correspond via e-mail almost every day and are enjoying sharing information. Sherry now plans to work on the PACELLI side. Word of mouth information indicates that there may be a connection to Pope Pius.
Joe MASTRANGELO (#2614) passed around a copy of the new LDS flier on researching in Italy. It can be ordered from Salt Lake City. Joe explained to the group how records in Italy are microfilmed by the LDS. The filming activity takes place at the archives, rather than the town. Whether the LDS films for a particular town is subject to the discretion of the LDS and the permission of the town. Joe brought some information for the group on translating Italian Civil Records. Joe has recorded 2400-2500 births and 1500-1600 marriages. A couple of others mentioned Lynn Nelson's book A Genealogist's Guide to Discovering Your Italian Ancestors as a good resource for anyone wanting to learn how to work with Italian Civil Records.
Ernie and Gloria GAMBACCINI Silva have recently been to Ohio for a family reunion. While there, they got several old family photos, and they shared these with the group. They also visited the health department and courthouse looking for birth certificates. They are currently working on their family book.
Warren and Eugenia ASSAIBENE Luken are planning a trip to Branson, Missouri.
Scott Patrick (#4619) is working with films at the LDS on GARAGUSI's from the town of Ansi. He's made several finds. He plans to start working with Potenza records next. Scott has also put together a package of his records for both his mother and his mother's cousin. They were thrilled to receive the records.
The meeting adjourned at 8:40pm.
Meeting notes submitted by Laurie GUGINO Riester (#3878).
Our next meeting is a potluck luncheon on Saturday, September 20, from 1:30-4:30pm at the Round Rock Library. Our schedule and past minutes are on
our web site: http://www.main.org/pip10/